[New Uniques and Legendaries - Brainstorming]

Never realy thought about it as a unique - whished it was a regular item drop with 3 texture colors and random generated stats.

I actually thought about it - the game has 4 color variations of the adventurer's hat, so there can be a unique and 3 randoms. The only possible issue is that every new design requires a new itemtype ID. Itemtype IDs are limited and there are only about 400 of them left. On one hand, that's quite a lot, seeing how the previous versions of the Item mod used up only about 200. I don't think I'd have enough patience to provide you with twice as many new designs as the mod brought in already. On the other hand, itemtypes are used for pretty much everything in this game, so with very few free IDs there won't be much room for integrating other mods. So this question is more to Flix than me - can we spend itemtypes on random variations or it would be better to leave more room for other mods?

 

By the way, that's an interesting suggestion for the name. I never knew about the Doggie character, but he fits the theme, being superheroic humanoid dog and all that, and Freddy Krueger is always pictured in a hat and wields a clawed glove, making a connection between the hat and Battle Extension bonus.

[New Uniques and Legendaries - Brainstorming]

Greetings to everybody who still watches this thread. I just wanted to say that I'm alive, that I'm back to DarkMatters and that I'm working on the Item Mod again. Back when we called for v1.2 release, I had quite a bunch of items in the works, so now I'm planning to finish the ones that did not make it into the previous release as well as to work on some new ideas and suggestions.

 

That being said, and because it's better late than never, I wanted to show you the preliminary implementation of idea suggested by SX255. It's preliminary because I wanted to apologise for taking my time with this hat, and to customize the item exactly to SX's liking.

Would you prefer your hat in dusty brown, or some other color scheme? Do you have a name for it and/or a list of preferred item modifiers? If you don't care about particulars, I'll come up with something. I just thought it won't be nice of me to make you wait so long and then deliver something different from what you want to see.

 

The other suggestions are also worked on, for example you can expect to see more items re-created from Sacred 1, more of Titan Quest items suggested by Flix (some shields for sure, probably short swords and axes too), new scythes and other things.

 

For those who are interested in the fate of the Elite Mounts - Mounts are a big project that takes way more time to finish than the items. And since it's better to release something than nothing at all, I want to clean up the half-finished items off my plate before returning to work on the Mounts. If I have enough time to work on both projects at the same time, I'd do that, otherwise I prefer to start with the smaller one.

[Yes, been away from FDM for a long time... but... S3... whaaaat?]

There are two types of reviews for this game, the first type is from people who never played the original and judge game based on its merits, and the second type is all the people who remember the first two games and are crucifying it for what its left out.

I also have a feeling that there are two types of reviews for the game, but not the ones you listed. I feel that one type comes from people who expected an RPG and people who bothered to complete the game, and the other is written under the first impressions by people who were more willing to get the review out sooner than to make it entirely comprehensive. As to why - all of reviews except for "old fan's rage" ones mention that the game has good dynamic start. But then the more serious ones mention that it shows all it has to offer in the first couple of hours, and all subsequent levels are just repetition of the same. Even a character class change does not bring much variety to gameplay, because all characters play about the same, so the game becomes stale and boring soon enough.

 

Does the community patch work with steam version?

From what I remember, it does. Its developers sure did test it on the Steam version.

[Sacred 3 World map]

Sacred 3 uses the Sacred 1 map without the Underworld expansion.

Well, to tell you the truth, that wasn't my first impression when I saw the map. When we were first shown a glimpse of it in the opening cinematic, with a sort of "evil darkness" spreading east to west I immediately thought about the official Lord of the Rings Middle Earth map, which often was printed with the books. The reveal of the lava place with the capital of evil empire exactly in the place where Mordor is supposed to be only confirmed my suspicion.

 

So I dug up the map of Middle Earth, its south-east corner to be precise:

Just compare it to the map of S3 - even the rivers and mountain ridges are placed similarly and we have desert and swamp where LotR map tells us they are. So I'm not even sure they used Sacred 1 map as an inspiration for this game.

[Impressions on Sacred 3]

So If you haven't got it I would probably suggest you don't bother as the only thing that is Sacred is in the name, and the Seraphim.

From what I've seen in "let's play" videos and first reviews, it does not have even that much. The title remains, but the Seraphim is not what she used to be. The previous installments didn't picture her as a generic spandex-wearing superheroine that would be more at home at Marvel or DC Universes than in Ancaria. Nor did they limit her to using simple boring sword swings for the entirety of the game.

 

Surprising as it is, I think that DarkMatters is a wrong place to ask for first impressions about S3. People here are all ARPG fans, and after hearing the first news about the upcoming S3, we all became skeptical at best, disheartened at worst. I don't think many people of this community considered a day one purchase or a pre-order - we all were waiting for gameplay videos and reviews.

 

I told it before that I personally won't buy this game because its genre switched to something I don't normally play, but I still tried not to voice major disappointment for as long as there were not enough information to judge the game by. Now, however, we have some info on our hands... There are three "let's play" videos here in another topic. I admit that I felt bored after watching even one of them to the end. Only 15 minutes, about 5 of which is an opening trailer, and I felt that I've seen all the game has to offer during the other 10. 3 types of monsters, 4 types of attacks, the same boring trap and shield disabling actions. Repeat. Judging by reviews, it does not get better with levelling up or campaign progress, because the only thing you gain with levels is that you start to overpower the enemies and difficulty goes down, making repetitive action boringly simple.

 

And the humor... the first two games did not take themselves too seriously, but they did not shove an awkward attempt at humor in your face during every dialog, at the rate of one joke every half-a-minute of gameplay. Maybe the humor of the first two games was not always smart and well-thought, but it wasn't that trite and vulgar, and the fact that it appeared mostly in characters' idle states, side quests, and other secondary things made discovering the jokes and Easter Eggs into pleasant experience. But S3... I'm starting to understand why some of the previewers mentioned the necessity of beer and friends - I'm not sure that this game's style and humor would be to the liking of a sober person who just wants to spend an evening with his computer.

 

One more thing that has to be said as a warning: this game was originally meant to be played in multiplayer team, or at least with AI companions. Later the devs removed AI followers, but did nothing to redesign certain levels of the game that are just not fun solo. Quoting one of the reviews:

Often, you have to stay rooted in one place while performing mundane busywork, like spinning a wheel or charging up a magic shrine while mobs of monsters attack at you. That's not fun either for the solo player or the co-op participant who ends up on wheel-spinning duty.

Just imaging plying this alone with nobody to watch your back...

 

For those who still doubt, I thought I'll leave "No Commentary" gameplay videos here, just to let the game speak for itself.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhyHpTN8TMg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8QvHDit2sU

[Yes, been away from FDM for a long time... but... S3... whaaaat?]

For me it was enough to look at the Steam user reviews here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/247950/reviews/?browsefilter=toprated&filterLanguage=english

 

Out of English, Russian and German opinions, almost all are of "negative" "don't buy" kind, and even those that are posted with thumb up turn out to sound negative in the message text (maybe people just forgot to change the icon to negative). The most positive opinions I've seen so far are along the lines of "If you like action packed combat you can spend some fun hours here. If you look for another Sacred 1 or Diablo, this will be the wrong game for you."

 

Honestly, even the games that are not liked by critics tend to get more positive Steam reviews that Sacred 3 got so far. Maybe that would change with time, as now the forums are filled with rage of old fans who preordered the game. But I don't think that if more that a few people called the game boring and able to occupy you for only a brief period of time it would get a solid fan base no matter how much time passes.

[Unbended - New project by former Ascaron employees!]

That's great. It's always good to hear the news and I'm glad to know that the project is gathering some money to get on with development. It gives some hope that we'd see the result one day.

 

On the other hand, as I checked the news, I noticed the videos with interviews and impressions about the game. That's great, but as far as no actual Unbended graphics was revealed, those videos look a bit strange and confusing because they use footage from other games. Ryanrocker's video that uses Sacred 2 graphics is more or less on spot, because the team promised to deliver something Sacred-like. But the video on crafting that suddenly uses Dark Souls gameplay to illustrate Unbended concepts put me off a bit. What's worse, I've seen some people who thought that it's actual gameplay of Unbended and decided that the game went the same console action way as Sacred 3...

 

Still, if the grave inscriptions are something to go by, the main supporters of Unbended so far are the people who were or are active in Sacred communities, who know the developers and trust them. I just hope that when Unbended hits Kickstarter its devs would assemble a good presentation to explain the potential backers what the game is about and what it is not.

[Sacred 2 Enhanced Edition]

The wait for the last two chars to be released was worth it. You did a great job on them. I especially like how TG's new CAs look in the description. Maybe Lost Fusion aspect would become more playable by itself now. DM's changes also sound good. There does not seem to be a way to keep the shifted shapes equally balanced for the whole length of the game, except maybe for the way Llama took in his mod, by making modifications that change the creatures you shift into. But that takes away modification opportunities, so does not sound very attractive. Otherwise, DM's modified spells look like a way to make him more fun to play.

 

Ugh, it's so crummy. I replaced it with glee. Enjoy yourself though.

Consider my reply to be made out of general doubt about the usefulness of summons. I agree that Ruinous Onslaught is not the best CA around, but Death Warrior SW is so much a powerhouse he does not look like the one who desperately needs a meat shield companion. Though I'll give the horned guy a try, who knows, maybe I'll like him after getting to know him better

 

I don't think I did a very good job presenting Sonic Vortex...

I considered consolidating the Seraphim's two energy shields into one, but I think they actually managed to make them different enough that they would have different uses. So I kept them separate, but splitting them up into different aspects is not an idea that I like.

Then it's OK. I can't say that I really like the idea of splitting the shields between aspects, I just was a bit concerned about the possibility of losing one of the tech aspect's main features. Originally it was well rounded with one-target boss-killing CA, Area of Effect CA, shields and BFG. Squeezing another kind of CA in meant either losing some opportunities or moving out one of the shields, because these were the only CAs within aspect that overlapped in function. But as the new CA can fit in the old role, there is no functionality lost and no change required.

 

Though, of course, no change is REQUIRED or even needed anyway. I'm not trying to criticize your work, or to make you change something. I understand that it's your personal mod and your vision of what the game's CAs should look like. This vision may match that of the others or not, but either way it brings an alternate way for the game to be played. So I'm just voicing my praise about the things that sound exiting and concern about the things I doubt for the sake of conversation. Besides, it's always good to have any possible concerns dispelled just by asking about them, as in case with changes to Revered aspect.

[Sacred 2 Enhanced Edition]

I'm anticipating the reveal of TG and DM, because these two are the characters who look like they need CA rework more than the others. So far, I'd say that reading about all the ideas and changes (including the ones that did not work) is very inspiring. Looking at your work here gives me more understanding of what is possible within the game and I find myself thinking what I would do if I decide to make a spell mod.

 

As for my impressions of all the new and reworked CAs: There are many ideas here that I like a lot, but others are a very high-quality example of something that just is not my cup of tea. Not that you did something badly, but in some cases I see more use in the original versions of the aspects than in modified ones. When I read your descriptions, I often find myself thinking that I'd like to keep many of your changes but would like to make some of replacements and aspect switches differently. So I think I'd be trying out all new CAs and keeping bits and pieces for my setup, if you don't mind such partial use of your work.

 

I know that I won't be running this mod as a whole because some of the cornerstone concepts are not to my liking: I never much liked summons in Sacred 2, because their AI is not stellar and with my playstyle they are more of a hindrance than help. Some of the more unusual summons like Inquisitor's Doppelganger who can have your CAs and weapons are fun, but for most of the classes I just can't see the use of summoning abilities. It's just my personal opinion, and I know that there are people who would like having AI allies.

 

I like your treatment of Twisted Torment and Black Curse, and I'm curious as to how you changed Viperish Disease. This CA went through many changes throughout the official patches and was nerfed in CM, so I wonder where your version stands in comparison (I know you didn't keep track of all Sacred 2 versions, but at least in comparison to I&B and CM). A trap CA is an interesting idea - I'm not quite ready to trade Forest Flight for it, but Dryad has other things that look expendable to me (the same VD, unless your version of it managed to strike the middle ground between "useless" and "feels like exploit").

 

I really like your SW changes as well, though as a person who does not favor summons I'd probably try keeping Ruinous Onslaught. But all other changes look good and personally I won't miss Shadow Veil. SW is a very strong character by himself and invisibility makes him boring.

 

Same with Inquisitor - most of the changes are great, and I like the idea for the summoning spell that acts similarly to Divine Gift. Ker's gift was an unusual idea, but a prospect of suddenly having a new boss against you was never really attractive. In Inquisitor's case, tricks with Mortifying Pillory can make the summon into a moderately good meat shield after the time runs out, so it may be fun to try out. I don't mind adding summoning spells to Inquisitor, because with Doppelganger and Inexorable Subjugation he is the main summoner of Sacred 2 character cast already. Though personally, I'd prefer Raving Thrust over Eruptive Desecration. Neither is a major damage dealer, but at least RT does not depend on environment (corpses) and does not become useless in Whisperwood and nearly so in Swamps. Then again, it's just a personal preference and other people have different opinions, besides, Eruptive Desecration has more original concept.

 

With the Seraphim, my feelings are more mixed. Unlike you, I never felt that Archangel's Wrath fits into Celestial aspect. This CA has some synergy with BFG and with weapon-based characters, but none with magic aspect. In Celestial, Archangel's concurs with Baneful Smite, as both of them are single-target CAs. At the same time, without Archangel's Wrath, RevTech loses its main damage dealer and is left without sniping CA at all, forcing you to go Celestial unless you want to spend the playthrough boringly pelting everything to death. With this CA gone, Exalted/Revered hybrids would have to rely mostly on Exalted for offense, and go into Revered only for shields, making them much less fun to play. There is Nova of course, but without many points in Rev Lore, Nova does not do much damage, and for hybrids pouring a lot into the skill for the sake of one moderately effective CA does not make that much sense. The new Revered CA sounds interesting to try, but looks like an Area of Effect debuffer rather than damage dealer, so it's a useful thing to have but not a replacement function-wise.

If I was moving something out of RevTech aspect, it would have been Divine Protection, because having two shield-based defensive CAs next to each other looks a bit excessive, considering the lack of defense in other aspects (especially since you removed Hallowed Restoration). And its graphic effect does not even look technology-themed. With its red design, it might have been considered for Exalted Warrior originally. Though I know that other people might disagree with this point.

 

All in all, thank you for working on this mod. It would bring much desired variety to people who are not into modding themselves, and give new ideas to those who are. Now I'll be waiting for the changes in the last two characters' arsenal to be announced.

[New Uniques and Legendaries - Brainstorming]

Still no hat

I'm sorry, SX. It's just that when you mentioned the hat, the development of v1.2 was pretty much finished. All items with unfinished models and textures were set aside and sheduled for the next release. I had a lot of such things that I would have liked to finish, but Flix persuded me to draw a line somewhere and call for a release. I promised you to make the hat, and it would be made for sure. But in the next version. I think you won't have to wait for several months till the next release though. As soon as I wrap up more of half-finished items, I might just as well call for v1.3.

 

 

A LONG time ago, there was an old SSI game I used to play called Eternal Dagger. My mention of the spear was a reference to a spear you could purchase in the game that had ice damage along with the chance to paralyze. Such an item, even if given "Chance to stun" would probably be too powerful for Sacred 2. The game also had a +7 greatsword, which was the best possible weapon you get if you knew where to look. In the game, +6 items were the best that could be had thru enchantment. And in the previous game, you had the Wizard's Crown. It was an item that let you cast lightning, improved the spell casting, and had high defensive bonuses.

Can you show some pictures or offer descriptions of visual designs that might fit these ideas? A good greatsword and a Unique or Legendary helmet can be a good addition. It's not really possible to make an item grant you a spell your character does not have, but maybe an All Combat Arts bonus can replace a property that gives you a Lightning CA... not fully but at least partially. As for the spear, if you remember the name and appearance, maybe something can be made, if you don't think it would overlap with previously made items. And by the way, I have two new scythe models made, and two more in process, so maybe the next version would grant your request for more scythe weapons.

[Sacred 3 Gameplay - English]

Thanks for sharing this, Dragon Brother. I don't plan to buy the game now or later, but its release is still a notable event for this community. I also think that the Malakhim class won't stay pre-order exclusive forever. It's just too big a piece to keep it this way. They probably made it so for now, so that while the game is still new those who pre-ordered felt they have a superior version. But as even Deep Silver expects the game to be relatively short-lived, I guess they'll release this class as a paid DLC once the hype goes down. Or maybe it would be included into some kind of Gold version, to encourage people who don't have this class to buy the game again. Anyway, I think that there would be time when you'd be able to buy S3 full and with discount. In fact, I won't be really surprised if it happens during the nearest big Steam sale.

[Conan the Barbarian Easter egg]

I'll just leave this one here:


I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who noticed this statue on the Multiplayer Island Arena, but I decided to mention it in this thread nevertheless, just to have the list of possible Conan references in one place.

[New Uniques and Legendaries - Brainstorming]

So it looks like I was wrong and the last post did not conclude the list of new unique items. There is one more, which I believed to be announced already, but it turned out that the actual stats were never shown before. So here are the

Mountain Man's Slippers

When Flix and me were making downloadable chests with all unique items, we found an incomplete blueprint for the Dryad boots. They had a look assigned and the name encoded by Ascaron developers, but lacked any bonuses. Flix decided to complete them and came up with the bonus list you see above. He also showcased them before in the NPC and Unused items thread - you can read his announcement here - but that time the stats were not actually shown. Now you know what properties these boot have, so good like finding them, and don't forget to take care while walking a slippery surface.

And to conclude the presentation of new items for the version 1.2 of the Item Mod, here comes a list of new designs that were added to the random item pool.

Lizard Shortsword and Crested Shield - Normal Items


Lizard B.astardsword - Magic Item


Brigand Shortsword - Magic and Rare Item

 

These were all shown in the NPC and Unlocked item thread before, though technically only the Brigand sword is unlocked. The lizard weapons have new models contributed by Pesmontis - he took apart the weapon display stand that Lizard merchants have and put their merchandise to actual use.

[New Uniques and Legendaries - Brainstorming]

Anyone knowing if it is possible to add negative life regeneration values? Any chance to use an integer overflow or something like this to get it?

I investigated a possibility to make negative item modifiers, and some are possible, but I haven't seen a way to make negative health regeneration or "each hit draws own health" modifiers yet. Sacred 2 allows for negative armor, slowdown of CA regen, decrease of attack and casting speed as item modifiers. But these are all done via special negative bonus types, not by any modification of the positive versions.

Overflow would not help here, because the bonus amounts seem to use Unsigned Integer types. I saw an overflow happen when I was making a maxed out Absorbtion WE (opponent) modifier, but it did not result in negative values - just went through 0 and started counting up again.

There is, however, a spell token "et_sacrifice_health_rel" which draws caster's health, sort of allowing to "cast from life force". It's used on some enemy spells. I haven't tried, but it may be possible to make a Combat Art modification that would allow for what you try to do.

 

And now to the last unique items that would appear in the upcoming release. This time it's magic staves and fistweapons.

 

Charge Integrator

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

"Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology." - Anonymous saying, probably by Larry Niven

For the ancient Ancarian races, magic and technology did not look like opposing concepts. After all, both ventures could be powered by the same T-Energy, which some scientists called "the essence of magic" and others used as a fuel to build machines. With enough T-Energy accumulated in one place, everything is possible, as heroes find out by investigating the fate of the Great Machine, which defined the fates of Ancarian people and probably the current shape of the world. This staff is of course not the Great Machine, but a portable device powered by charged T-Energy. But that is enough to greatly enhance its owner's combat prowess in a simple but effective way. One does not have to be a warrior or mage of great skill to be able to use this device to great effect - when the charge stored in the staff is added to the owner's abilities, the resulting damage is devastating. At the same time, supercharged atmosphere around the staff stuns opponents with lightning strikes while protecting the owner from magic and energy.

 

This staff has original design that was made by Pesmontis and was inspired by T-Energetic machinery scattered across Ancaria, especially by round T-Energy distributors. He wanted to make this weapon interesting for characters who do not have a skill for it, and I tried to make the modifiers that are generally useful and not connected to any specific skill or CA. So all credit for the item's appearance and concept goes to him.

 

As a result, Charge Integrator has additionally increased base magic damage, a percent modifier for damage increase and a corresponding secondary effect chance. All of it together results in weapon damage outcome that is noticeably bigger than what can be found on other 2-handers of the same level, and makes this staff an effective weapons even for characters who don't have Tactics Lore. Magic Coup-using Elves would probably benefit from it most.

 

Wisdom of the Dragons

"Dragons often do more damage then their foes expect" - from Llama8's Mod

The big Dragons living in Ancaria are intelligent and wise, but are more known for possession of great amounts of raw power, which is feared by their enemies and allies alike. They do not share their knowledge readily, but a person who managed to win a Dragon's favor can learn to use incredibly powerful magic. This staff, shaped as four Dragon heads facing all directions of the compass, symbolizes the Dragons' power. Use it as you please, just take care not to harm yourself in process and don't be surprised when other beings would try to run away after noticing that you approach.

 

A strong two-handed staff which is all about increasing spell damage. It might not be as powerful as Tinwora's Curse + Glacial Defender, twin Officer's Sabers or other popular caster's equipment, it does not offer any defence, and fear is not always a welcome effect, but it's still a good choice of magical weapon.

 

Sudden Fury

It is unknown who forged this blade. The likes of it appeared in Tyr Lysia, but never became popular enough to become a military issue weaponry. Nevertheless, one renegade elven battlemaster decided to employ the special features of bladed fistweapons and created a martial art that would hundreds of years later evolve into traditional blade combat of the Dark Elves. Being smaller and lighter than traditional swords, this blade have smaller reach and can not deal as much damage, but allow for faster attacks and greater chance to hit the enemy. Because they make close combat even more close up and personal, bladed fistweapons became popular among aggressive fighters who seek to vent out their fury rather than to keep the safe distance.

 

This fistweapon was found in game files by Pesmontis - its likes serve as a huge decorative elements for Tyr Lysia dungeons and battlegrounds. Pesmontis remodelled the item he found into a weapon of a proper size and proportions, so thanks to him this fistweapon can now be wielded by the characters and became a welcome addition to the relatively new weapon class. As Pesmontis suggested no name for it, I named this weapon after a Combat Move that the Dark Elf had in Sacred 1, and tried to give it bonuses similar to this stunning (literally) Milti-Hit CA.

 

The Catalyst

A thin metal frame with electrolysed crystals gathered by Seraphim scientists from remains of Ice Elementals might not look like a weapon. But it makes for a good one. This tool was originally created to be used as a catalyst in alchemical experiments, but turned into a weapon when rampant stone creatures burst into the laboratory and the scientist had nothing more handy. At this moment, it was discovered that the catalystic properties of the crystals affect not only the chemicals in test tubes, but also those inside the body of a person who holds the tool. The Catalyst is capable of speeding up all processes inside its wielder's body, allowing for much greater speed of movement and combat action - up to the point when the wielder manages to strike twice in nearly the same time. Needless to say, it was never used as a lab tool again.

 

This is another item which was made to bring more variety to fistweapon designs. Its basic shape was inspired by fistweapon design from Torchlight 2, but it has different model quality, different proportions, and crystals based on those from the Crystal Planes. So I hope it would be a good fit to the world of Ancaria.

 

The Iron Knight

What would an armored knight choose if he seeks to incorporate an off-hand weapon into his combat style? This is the answer that some creative weaponsmith gave to this question - a heavy armored gauntlet with short but very sharp retractable blade. The weight of the gauntlet is enough to accelerate the impact of the blade and let it pierce through opponent's armor (a useful property for knightly battles, as you are usually not the only one smart enough to come well-armored). At the same time, the armor that protects the grip is good enough to block opponent's strikes with it, so it can recompense for preferring the second weapon over the shield.

 

The story of this weapon's making is the same as of the Catalyst. And to think of it, even with those new items, the fistweapon class still can use more unique and legendary items.

[New Uniques and Legendaries - Brainstorming]

Some time ago there was a mod update about torches. So it stands to reason there should be pitchforks somewhere too. This update would introduce new polearms, most of which are featuring trident-like designs. These poles and javelins were made at Flix's request, because he wanted to see some weapons imported from Titan Quest and expressed a wish to see tridents in Sacred 2. Making TQ designs fit in Sacred 2 quality-wise required some work, but these spears turned out well.

 

Spear of the Dryads
The life of the Dryads is attuned to the Forest. They do their best to keep the natural beauty of their island. The Dryads do not cut trees to build their cities, do not mine resources, do not pollute and do not hunt animals for fun. At the same time, they are known as the most skilled hunters in Ancaria and their rangers and guards always managed to keep Dyr Lain safe. No wonder that the best of the Dryad weapons are made out of living plants, and combine rejuvenating abilities of ever-growing forest with great effectiveness against enemies. The Spear of the Dryads might look like a symbol of nature, with its polished spearhead made out of sweet-smelling wood that attracts fireflies. But this spearhead is as hard and sharp as the best elven steel, and a thorny vine which twines around the shaft possesses one of the strongest poisons.

 

This weapon is a re-creation of the Titan Quest legendary of the same name, and as such refers to mythological Dryads, the Ancient Greek tree spirits. But its design and properties fit Sacred's own Dryads just as well. Despite the name, the Spear of the Dryads is Dexterity-based, because this is the attribute the Dryads excel with.

 

The Earth-Shaker
In Greek mythology, "Earth-Shaker" was one of epithets of the Sea God Poseidon, which referred to his ability to cause earthquakes. As Poseidon's customary weapon is a trident, and his very name is commonly associated with all things marine, this spear appears trident-like, but is actually made in a form of a lobster-like creature. Though who knows, maybe it actually is some kind of a mythical sea monster which helps the wielder to hinder enemies and fight more effectively.

 

 

This is another legendary TQ spear re-created as a new unique item.

 

Soulflay Fork
This strange weapon was found in the grim depth of Hades, where unfortunate souls of the dead wander the bleak planes that were never lit by sunlight. Being connected to the mystical energies of afterlife, this spear greatly enhances its wielder's abilities in magics of all kinds.

 

 

Yet another re-creation of TQ legendary of the same name.

 

Danse Macabre
This beautiful but dangerous trident turns the wielder's movements into a battle dance, which greatly increases his fighting prowess. A fighter who finds this weapon would never miss his target and would be able to find a breach even in fine armor. But the most valuable ability the fighter can gain by performing the dance of Death, is of course to channel opponents' life energies and to use them to strengthen himself.

 

And finally, not a Titan Quest related weapon, but a trident nevertheless. It was loosely based on Channeler's Trident from Dark Souls, or rather on a special property of this weapon - it granted its wielder a unique "dance" battle move which greatly increased the power of attacks. Chattius' Sohei guide to polearm Dragon Mage served as another inspiration for a polearm that can be useful for specialized and hybrid characters alike.

[Sacred 2 Enhanced Edition]

The visuals are striking. These icons make me wonder how different the CAs behind them are from the original versions. I understand that in cases of icons that do not match the original CA the answer is "Completely". But what about those that look fitting? Adjusted innate properties? Different modifications? I guess it's possible, but when did you find time to make a complete spell overhaul? Or maybe some are still the same but just received new icons so as not to stand out as poor relatives? Of course, we'd find that out soon enough. Consider my questions rhetorical.

 

I think I recognize three CAs you mentioned making when you posted a topic about unused and deactivated spells. Sound-related CA for debuffing enemies which you might or might not named "Sound Vortex" probably would make an appearance in Celestial Magic, considering the icon which features a battle cry of sorts. And looks like you made a buff for SW's minions into a replacement for Shadow Veil just as you planned when you described "lost" CAs (the icon to the left of what is probably a modified Nether Allegiance looks like a prefect match to the visual effect of this deactivated buff). And a Venomous Trap for the Capricious Hunter tree, instead of Forest Flight.

 

Another immediate thought is that one icon in the modified Lost Fusion tree makes me thing about Summon TG spell from Llama's mod. Maybe you did something similar here? Maybe not. But if I was remastering Lost Fusion, I'd probably put a buff of sorts into it.

[Sacred 2 Ice & Blood settings]

I think that TPOMax value is taken from the Camera Settings interface and written into options.txt (this file is changed every time you launch the game), so maybe you can change it from there. In my options.txt TPOMax = 40, but I'm not entirely sure that it's the default setting.

[New Uniques and Legendaries - Brainstorming]

The next version of the mod is going to be released soon enough (its implementation is finished and we are testing it now), so over the course of the next few days I'm going to present you the rest of the items that made their way into this version. Note that these are not all items that were worked on - some projects just were not finished in time so they were not included into the upcoming release, but hopefully would be released later. Today's update is about the swords of all kinds.

Guardian's Word
This sword is a relic of the Ancient Wars, the very events that figure in legends and old records. It was a weapon of the Guardians of the Great Machine, those who followed an order to Serve and Protect. Designed for wars in which many foes used technology-enhanced armor and energy shields, this sword has hydraulics-powered blade capable of cutting through the best armor and a special t-energy layer that allows to overload the enemies' shields and often disable them in one hit. The technology which was used to make such weapons was lost in time, but this particular sword remains as powerful as it was ages ago. But the foes in the present Ancaria are not what they used to be...


This sword features two new item modifiers that were made specifically for its sake:

• One of them is "Opponent's armor -%" modifier. The game had a version of it that only applied to Physical armor, rendering the modifier less useful against enemies with elemental resistances, especially for weapons with damage converters forged (what's the point of reducing physical armor if you're not dealing physical damage?) This all channel version allows the weapon's owner to customize its damage to his heart's desire without compromising the modifiers.
• The other is a special modification of the "Absorption Warding Energy (opponent)" modifier. Such modifier was present in the original game, but due to being rarely needed, rather weak and bugged to boot, it was never considered seriously. This new version seeks to redeem this. Not many foes in Ancaria use energy shields, so this modifier won't come handy very often. However, it recompenses for the low number of uses with its great effectiveness in those situations. This new version is a static modifier: no matter the level, Guardian's Word would always have 99.9% in it. And such great number allows the characters who use this sword to completely remove opponents' energy shields in one (rarely two) successful hit with this weapon. Now not only High Elf's Expulse Magic, but melee fighters too have a chance to disable opponents' shields and cut immediately into the health bar. Also, the opponents' whose shield was destroyed with this sword do not recast it again, allowing the fighter to switch to other weapons if necessary.

Father's Sword
Some time ago, Gilberticus requested a weapon or weapons inspired by Conan the Barbarian movies. The first request was, of course, for the Atlantean Sword, which still is on my "to do" list, and hopefully would make it into the next version. The current version of the mod would bring in a formidable sword, which was forged by Conan's father at the beginning of the story and which was used to defeat his main enemy at the end. I made it into a two-handed weapon because it was often held with two hands in the movie and because Sacred still does not have many two-handed swords which are worth wielding. The stats were inspired by the scene when Conan uses this sword to avenge for his parents' murder, despite his enemy's attempt to mesmerise him.


When the Atlantean Sword would be made, I'll try to make a short quest that would allow players to acquire either of the swords (I think of making a reward depend on player's choice). As of the current version, Father's Sword would drop normally, as all uniques do. I just did not see a point in holding a finished weapon away from the game.

Smoke Without Fire Set
At all times people were scared of demons who are lurking in the shadows, but aware that the worst demons are those dwelling inside a soul. This sword-and-shield mini set allows you to excel in the tricky ways of demons - hiding, sneaking, and catching enemies unaware. Just use the excellent cover of your shield to approach the enemies while they are not watching, strike when they least expect it and disappear in smoke when they try to strike back!


The idea for this set appeared when Pesmontis made the shield - an unusual item that was based on Demon shield model, but sported a previously unused silver-and-black texture and a unique smokescreen effect. Later I paired it with a sword, which has a modified Demon sword model and silver-and-black texture matching the shield. An amulet with rare model was used to complete a mini-set themed around Demons and stealthy action. So big thanks to Pesmontis for the great idea and inspiring design (and for the awesome shield, of course).

Smoking Demon, or more formally, the Smokescreen Demonshield, makes the characters' exact location harder to figure out, greatly increasing their chance to evade the enemies' blows, arrows and spells. The smoke it emits moves a bit with the shield, but does not cover the character's head and feet. The smoke also leaves a trail behind a running character, but quickly returns to its original position when the character stops and stands still.


Sneaking Demon is the more aggressive counterpart of the Smoking one. This sword allows you to catch the enemies when they are most vulnerable, dealing increased damage with a great chance.


Inner Demon is a small but useful amulet that allows you to prey on the enemies and steal their energies for your own use, as well as to unlock the set bonuses.



And at last, a small update for one of the previously released items: In the new version, Maul's Swordstaff, a unique two-handed lightsaber from Item Mod v1.0, is going to get a new unique model. Now this weapon would have not only the general structure and the blade color, but also the hilt design of the swordstaff wielded by Darth Maul in Star Wars movies and comics. This model would only be used for the copies of Maul's Swordstaff that drop in version 1.2 - the earlier copies of this weapon and other red swordstaves would continue to use the old model.

[Flix's Music Mod for Sacred 2]

Thanks for making and sharing this mod, Flix. I know that you are a musician and generally have good taste, and that you care about keeping an atmosphere of Ancaria and bringing in only the things that fit, be it graphical or conceptual designs. So I'm sure that the music you choose would increase the variety of in-game tracks without disrupting anything. I think I'll give your music mod a try when I'll be testing the new version of the Item Mod this weekend.

 

And Gogo is totally right about your descriptions. Some of them made really me want to hear the tracks that give you that feel and create such atmosphere.

 

Special thanks for choosing a different tone for the additional tracks of Cursed Forest music. This place has some eerie beauty, not just horror feel, and I'd be glad to hear some tunes that emphasize this feature of the place.

[Buenas help me please]

Some players consider the number of hits Darting Assault does with Magic Staff equipped to be I&B exploit. However, it was never patched out, so many PC players build their Dryads around it.

 

So on XBox, you would not fire that many arrows, and you just can't fire into opponents who are that far. However, this picture illustrates that even in Fallen Angel or on console Darting Assault can hit quite a few opponents (the player in this picture uses blowpipe).

[Buenas help me please]

Oh, I haven't realized you were playing on console, because your profile says PC as platform. I'm afraid on console this particular build won't work because it was made for I&B add-on and relies on two features added with it. One such feature is that the Dryad got an opportunity to take weapon skill for Magic Staffs (sometimes called Staff Lore) and the other is that in I&B Magic Staffs shoot projectiles if a character has the skill for them. On console, you can get similar result by using the same Darting Assault with Bows, but still the range would be smaller.

[Buenas help me please]

I know this build, and the main Combat Art it uses (including on 3.40-3.42) is Darting Assault modified as Reload-Throwback-Rotate.

Note that this is Staff Lore build, without Staff Lore skill you won't get such result using a Magic staff.

But actually, you can download the character from this video here: http://www.sacred.net.ru/uploads/sacred2/chars/guides/Sacred2_PvM&PvE_VooDooBE_driada_by_SCHOCK.zip And see what she uses for yourslef.

[Sacred 2 Direct Damage is ... ?!]

Well, it did not turn out as I originally expected it would, but it does not look any weaker than that.

 

At first, I thought that having Direct Damage X% makes your damage consist of X% that are not modified by enemies' armor and (100-X)% that are. But that would have given smaller damage increase and way less uniform between differently armored enemies. The way it looks in tests, you still have 100% of damage calculated normally + additional X% that ignore armor. So in a way my test results surprised me.

 

The testing is still incomplete. For example, I'd like to know if this additional damage is affected by opponent's Damage Mitigation. But for this I'd need to test it on some opponents with known mitigation values (most probably by slapping mitigation on Sloeford Wolves).

 

And well, I'm not claiming it to be 200% correct, just trying to make a theory that would explain the damage I'm seeing.

[Sacred 2 Direct Damage is ... ?!]

For a long time, there was little to no reliable information about Direct Damage, mostly due to its rarity. I had my theory about how it works, but somehow never got to test it. Now that I'm working on making stats for new items in the Item Mod, I decided to look a bit more into how Direct Damage works and compare its effectiveness with other modifiers. So, I wanted to share my findings and my opinion about them.

 

In the beginning, I wanted to mention one fact: in the game's scripts, Direct Damage goes under the name "sb_off_bonusNOarmor", so it is logical to assume that this modifier offers some damage that ignores opponent's armor rather than just boosts the characters' weapon damage.

 

Now to my testing. Being a modder, I made simpler tests than Chattius suggested. I used dual Power of NIF lightsabers for testing (only level 40 ones, with total Direct Damage 15%), and run two series of tests - first, I used the swords as they are, then went to the scripts and removed the Direct Damage modifier from these weapons, thus testing with all the same conditions except for this modifier.

 

The damage listed in the tooltip was the same in both test runs - regardless of whether or not Direct Damage was present, my character's damage was listed as 570-710, average 639 (not much, but I was running with reduced gear to see the effect more clearly). This is usually an indication that the modifier is applied only during the damage outcome calculation. As Direct Damage is not a chance modifier, the fact that it can't be applied without an enemy implies that its impact on resulting damage varies depending on the enemy's stats.

 

Now going to hit some enemies. My weapon damage is fire+magic+physical, in equal quantities, so at first I took only the enemies with purely physical resistance or physical+poison, so that they could be compared to each other:

• First on the way are the guys with 48-50 armor: with Direct Damage, my character is dealing an average of 551 damage to them (made a lot of hits, of course, then calculated average value for statistics). Without Direct Damage, the average is 452 damage. Increase seems to be 99.
• Then various opponents with 76-78 armor, and skeletons with 244-245 armor, half of which is physical: With Direct damage, the average is 534. Without Direct Damage, the average is 430. Increase seems to be 104.
• Now let's try opponents with mixed 144 physical+fire resistance so that they are better protected against my weapons: With Direct damage, the average is 496. Without Direct Damage, the average is 403. Increase seems to be 93.

Now, 15% of my character's average damage is 95. Statistics might be uncertain, but the increase of the final damage seems to be around this value.

 

Then I used a damage calculation formula which Mibbs left on the wiki to determine what my character's supposed damage against those opponents should be (I know, he said that the formula was for spell damage, but I tried it for melee just to see if the result would be similar to statistics). According to that formula:

• Against opponents with 48 armor again my damage types, I should be dealing 639*639/((639+48)*1.3)=456 damage. Looks similar to what I'm getting. And 456+95=551.
• Let's see about opponents with 76 effective armor: 639*639/((639+76)*1.3)=439; 439+95=534
• For 144 effective armor: I should be dealing 401 damage... you see where it is going.

Funny enough, but Mibbs' formula keeps giving me average damages that are exactly 95 digits different from the average of what I see flying when Direct Damage is active.

If Slevin was right and Direct Damage was an increase of a player's base damage applied before other bonuses, then this modifier would have been less effective on more armored opponents, just like normal damage is. Not to mention that the modifier that can be calculated using only player character's base damage would not need an enemy to be applied and could show in tooltip immediately.

Instead, the damage increase from this modifier seems to be about the same regardless of which enemy you are fighting. Direct Damage X% appears to be adding X% of your damage total to the amount of damage you are normally dealing to an enemy after the damage/armor calculation is done. This additional part is not affected by opponent's armor, but probably can be mitigated. And, of course, if the entire hit is blocked/reflected/evaded, this part does not come through. Still, this modifier seems to be something that allows to deal better damage to highly armored opponents.

This stands up to Chattius' statement that the effectiveness of Direct Damage changes with difficulty. On higher difficulties opponents have better armor than on lower ones, and the better resistance enemies offer to the main part of damage, the more noticeable the not-resistible part feels.

 

My testing is of course, not perfect, I did not want to spend entire day just documenting the damage values so more representative samples may be required. But my theory about how this modifier works seems to be a bit better match to the internal name, as it really is about adding some damage which is not affected by armor.

[Sacred worth trying? If so, which class?]

As Virian said, the most effective characters in Sacred 1 are narrow specialists, but in my opinion they are rather boring to play. The Wood Elf is an effective fighter with only Multiple Shot and Penetrating or Explosive Arrows, and maybe only one rune in Quick as a Flash for faster movement. But you don't have to be super-effective to beat the game without troubles and to have fun exploring Ancaria. So most of my characters use 5-6 CAs, 2 or 3 for damage, and others for temporary buffs.

 

My favorite Wood Elf (I played several different ones) was running around with Quick as a Flash + Multiple Shot as a power-up combo, Multi Hit for crowd control, and Explosive for champions and bosses. Later in game I used Penetrating as an alternative for Explosive. Explosive Arrow offers huge damage, but it has lowered Attack rating, so it misses rather often when used against opponents with good stats. Later in game Penetrating Arrow was a good thing to spam on Dragons. Still, after 4x Explosive arrow combo, bosses usually had not all that much health left, and that was usually taken with Penetrating Arrows. Also I had a few runes in Recuperation, just to use it as a back-up in critical situations. I never really used Companion of the Woods, but that was due to technical issues, not because I found it weak. I played unpatched Underworld (it was only recently that I found the latest patch that agreed to install on my version of the game), and I could not get Companion runes for my WEs, because they just did not drop and could be obtained only by exchange (same was with Lightning runes for my BMs). Probably it got fixed in the latest versions.

 

If you want Moon Magic to be used for damage, it's better to do it with a character who specializes in magic. For a hybrid, the damage would be underwhelming, so bow-wielders fare better with only buffs from the magic school. So for the bow build, there is no actual need to take Magic Lore, and whether or not you would want Moon Magic or Meditation depends on how often you would use the buffing spells.

 

As for not having enough runes, there is only one way with which I, personally, remedy it - questing. Almost all side quests have a solid chance of being rewarded with a rune, even two if you are low-level in Silver difficulty. I can remember a couple of quests that most probably won't be rewarded with runes, but most would. The quests are also the best way to get set items in campaign (I'm not talking about boss-hunting because it's mostly for multiplayer). The set piece reward system seems to be similar to what we have in Sacred 2 - the more quests you complete, the easier is to get a set item as a reward.

 

Some people also have special characters for rune farming, because the less runes you read the more would drop from monsters. But I never considered such farming with a warrior character fun. It's also possible to gather runes by starting a new character specifically for it - start in Silver, complete quests in Bellevue, get 2 runes from each, then give them to the old character. But that's an artificial method which not all people like.